16-year-old Mexican hit man, 'El Nino,' linked to 50 murders

A 16-year-old confessed to Mexican police that he took part in executions while working for a drug cartel.

ByReutersSeptember 13, 2012

Members of the Caravan for Peace, a group of friends and family who lost loved ones to the violence in the Mexican drug war, march with members of Occupy Wall Street through the financial district in New York, September 7. Mexican police are now investigating a 16-year-old hit man thought to responsible for 50 deaths.

Mexico City — Mexican prosecutors said Thursday they were investigating a 16-year-old suspected hit man who was believed to have participated in at least 50 murders while working for a drug gang.

A spokesman for prosecutors in the northeastern state of Sinaloa said the teenager, identified as Francisco Miguel N., was part of a gang known as Los Mazatlecos, a criminal group attached to the Beltran Leyva drugs cartel.

Police arrested the teen for carrying a loaded gun and drugs. He later confessed to working as a hit man for the group, local prosecutors said in a statement.

The 16-year-old, one of whose nicknames was "El Nino" or "The Boy," said he was given an AK-47 rifle and a pistol to carry out the various attacks in Sinaloa, a violent coastal state with a long tradition of drug trafficking.

Sinaloa is home to the powerful drug cartel of the same name, led by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. Once allied to Guzman, the Beltran Leyva gang has fought with him since breaking from the Sinaloa cartel in 2008.

A number of teenagers have been captured working for drug gangs, lured by the prospect of quick money. In June 2011, a group of six teenage drug gang members were captured after a shootout with police in central Mexico.

Turf wars between the gangs and their clashes with security forces have killed more than 55,000 people during the rule of outgoing President Felipe Calderon.